Google To Develop Detector for ISP Throttling

Capping and/or throttling broadband by ISPs has been in the news for quite some time now and will continue to be so. After many denials Comcast eventually came clean about it’s throttling efforts, and the issue is certainly a contentious one. Comcast and other ISPs claim they need to take action to protect their service from those that abuse the pipes with excessive uploading and downloading. I see the larger issue as a major flash point with the ISPs trying to limit, and also find ways to charge for, heavy broadband usage. Content providers are rushing to push more and more media over the tubes, and ISPs are trying to get ahead of that rush and find ways to charge for it. At some point that flash point will turn into a showdown.

Google is paying attention to this as well, and apparently is developing a tool that users can put into play to determine if their ISP is throttling back service, and that, in my opinion, is a good thing, because at the least, it would allow consumers to have some knowledge of the efforts their ISP are making.